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Do His Doctors Know?

Bill Clinton and Magic Johnson in Waterloo, Iowa. (Photo: Joshua Lott for The New York Times)

WATERLOO, Iowa — Bill Clinton and Magic Johnson were about half an hour late to their rally here at the Boys & Girls Club, and Mr. Clinton just explained why.

He said they wanted to help the local economy so they stopped at a cafe. And then he told the 200 people waiting here inside a school gym what they ate: chicken, bacon, mashed potatoes, French fries, grilled cheese and banana cream pie.

“We need a nap,” he said, “but we’re happy to be here.”

Hey Bill, what happened to those carrots that your wife wants you to eat?More soon on what he says beyond the menu.

Update | 5 p.m. : Mr. Clinton briefly introduced Magic Johnson.

Mr. Johnson spoke briefly, for about six or seven minutes, and he was on message as he talked up Mrs. Clinton. He said she’s worked hard on important issues for more than 30 years. These include improving education and creating jobs.

“She is a woman of action,” he said. “She is a woman of her word.”

Then Mr. Clinton returned to the podium and spoke again, for perhaps 40 minutes. At first, he was less on message than Mr. Johnson, giving a summation of the state of the world for about 20 minutes before veering back to the topic at hand.

He repeated several times that he had nothing against the other Democrats running and confessed to liking some of the Republicans. “I’m getting old and soft,” he said. He did sound a little sleepy (probably because of that gigantic lunch).

In any case, he told some lesser-known stories about his wife’s dedication to helping other people. He said that after law school, she could have “written her ticket” and gone to a big law firm in Chicago and made a name for herself in which case she would have run for president sooner than this year. Instead, she knocked on doors of poor people in Bedford, Mass., and talked to them about why their children had dropped out of school.

Mr. Clinton said those conversations led her and a colleague to write up a report that became the basis of a new law that required equal and appropriate education for disabled children.

He continued in that vein for another 20 minutes or so, presenting the nuts-and-bolts workhorse Hillary, not a warm-and-fuzzy Hillary.

The most important thing, he said, was to help other people. “Now that my political career is over,” he began at one point, hesitating a bit as he contemplated the thought, then adding how much he loves politics and remembers so many details of his own career, including all his debates. This kind of recollection occurs, he said, “when you’ve got more yesterdays than tomorrows.” Still, he said, “the only thing that matters is whether people are better off when you quit than when you started.”

O.K., we’re off to try to catch up with Mr. Clinton and Mr. Johnson at the next stop, which is in West Hampton.

Stop all this nonsense about Bill — he is not running.
It is sickening to have to junk most of the columns talking about a man who should be in history books and not out on the hustings. The more he talks, the weaker his wife looks.
And all the slime, slash and burn, tactics from the HRC high command, the quicker they are hitting bottoms — all the better for any intelligent voter.

No matter the work horse, no matter how many times it’s been set out around the track, the election of a president is always a question of “rolling the dice”. It finally makes more sense to judge the human qualities—the courage, sense of integrity, honesty, diligence, ambition, shrewdness, mean-spiritedness, serenity, intelligence, duplicity—the good and the bad of a candidate than to weigh patchworks of experience, giving more weight to one type of human activity than some others.
Leadership itself comes from internal strength and clarity, a facility to communicate direction based on conviction, the ability to inspire and motivate others and to earn their confidence. It seems that Democratic partisans of an experience argument should throw their support behind that ex-Jumbo pitcher and current governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson. But even that would be rolling the dice, since History has a habit of belittling experience.
Whose experience makes them most capable of confronting this moment in a post post-historic world? Richard Nixon had had a stellar career before assuming the mantle of commander-in-chief, his experience resembled a pedigree; nonetheless History laid him low. Poor old Abraham Lincoln was scarcely mundane when he took upon himself the weight of History, dooming himself perhaps, but saving his country and rededicating it to its highest purpose in a renewal that nearly died with him. Whatever experience was his in 1860, it was the right experience for his time. Indeed, he was able to shape History rather than to be shaped by it. We have been living on the wrong side of History since November 2000. There is a mighty price to be paid and blue chip experience won’t matter a whit with what’s ahead.

Did they have a cigar at the end of the meal? Good grief! Who cares? If Bill wants to eat that, then that’s his business. Not yours or ours, his. Last I checked, he was a grown man, more than capable of making his own food choices.

I agree with leo #2,the food habits of the spouse(with medical history) of a candidate should’nt be an issue in the column for comment/posting.I can understand the terminal illness of the spouse of another candidate can be an issue.

I fail to see why Magic Johnson cannot talk about his support for Hillary Clinton. This is a free country, and Johnson has the right to air his views. No one has forced him against his will to appear for Hillary. It seems the First Amendment is suspended when anyone supports Hillary Clinton. Well, it is not.

Reply to post #3 (Warren Hughes) What you wrote is typical hypocrisy. If is okay for Barack to have Oprah, its okay for Hillary to have Magic. You cannot have it both ways, which is what you want.

Reply to post #7 (Jeremy McNamara) Actually, Mr. McNamara, I’ll cheerfully and gratefully accept it just one way! But I doubt if you’d be able to provide that which I’m seeking? Oh, and one more thing..Hillary doesn’t have Magic…that quality is something Barack is over-flowing with!

The Clintons will be eating Iowa crow in January.
Obama is pulling further ahead in the polls.The electorate is seeing through the cynical shtick promulgated by the Clintons over the past two weeks.They are beginning to see the close resemblance to what we already have occupying the White House.Why go back when we can go forward?

The Raucus in the Caucus:
It’s getting just a tad contentious out there on Ye olde Campaign Trail, ya think?
I’s what gets our jaded juices aflowing my fellow Americans! Almost as riveting as watching episodes of 24 or being in attendance at the coliseum as the gladiators and the gladiola (Hillary) fight to the death!

I do not see that Obama has any magic. He is all talk and nothing elese. He plenty of baggage, not the least of which is past drug use, which the media continues to ignore. He has never paid his debt to society for breaking the drug laws while others sit in prison.

It is also doubtful that this country will vote for a black man to be president. I have no intentions of voting for him for many reasons, and I will not vote for a black to be president. I would vote for the Republicans. I would even vote Bush 43 back in first if it were possible. Bush would keep taxes low.

I have never had mashed potatoes and french fries in the same meal! Is that Magic’s Growth Medicine? Glad to hear Hillary promotes carrits and probably green beans as well.
She is my candidate,and she will be the next President of these United States.

Will this wild story be printed in the print edition? I’d like to print it as is and come back to scan the comments,including mine. After watchin Bill on blab to Cross for an hour, I thought he’d wise up and let Hillary run hernown campaign. Enough a-ready.

I would like it if Bill’s story about Hillary’s work in Bedford, Mass, could be verified.

Seriously.

I would like to see the people who made that bill to give equal education for disabled children to come up and verify that story.
Give an endorsement – it be nice to know if Bill is not lying again.

Why?

Because the way Bill Clinton makes it – it sounds like they pilferage from Barack Obama’s autobiography.
I’m not accusing but it does have that similar ring to Obama’s story after he left Columbia and then Harvard.

I mean – it was ok for Clinton to start using the word “change” – all the candidates did.

And she did use Obama’s catch phrase in a debate – “Let us turn the page.” – right in front of Obama, who smiled at it; it wasn’t like he had a copyright on it.

As a fiscal Republican, there is nothing better than I would like to see than Obama become the Democratic nominee. Hillary Clinton knows how to fight Republicans. Obama will be chewed up by the Republican dirt machine, and the Repulicans will win. The Democrats mean higher taxes and nothing beneficial for them. That seems to be their biggest problem. High taxes and no services of value for those higher taxes. Social Security and Medicare, two very worthy Democratic programs, are financed by a different taxes, not the general revenue tax. Social Security and Medicare are all the Democrats have left. I used to be a Democrat. I go tired of their high taxes to finance some other crackpot idea, with the exceptions of Social Security and Medicare. Clinton can withstand the Republican dirt machine. She has proven it for 15 years, but Obama acts like he is running to be the nation’s entertainer. What J. McNamara (#12) said about not voting for a black is true for some people, which can help Republicans. We do not want Clinton. We want Obama. The Republicans will make mince meat out of him. The Republicans will promise low taxes for fiscal conservatives to
to make sure they stay in the party. Combine the social conservatives, the fiscal Republicans, conservative Democrats who will cross party lines because of race, and the Republcians win. They can still win without Obama. You may have failed to notice that the Electoral College is extremely unkind to Democratic presidential victories. We would prefer Obama as the Democratic nominee. I will rejoice if he gets it.

Well thanks, Jerry, for telling us what we already knew….That you would rather see this country go down in Flames under our current leader, than vote for a Black Man. A man by the way, who just might be able to restore some of our former prestige and get us back on track.

My Grandmother would call your way of thinking “throwing the baby out with the bath water.”

I truly hope there are not too many “real” Americans like you out there!

What CNN reported was that Bill Clinton said “this is no time for a rookie” when he introduce Magic Johnson.

Those who know NBA history will remember that Magic was an All Star, changed the Lakers paradigm, and delivered a championship in his rookie year, at age 20. In the final game, he moved from point guard to center to replace an injured Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and delivered one of the “finest clutch performances in NBA history.”

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